October 2, 2008

It's OCTOBER!


Here in Orlando, I am looking out of the window and seeing a beautiful pumpkin-orange sunset through a lacey pattern of black silhouetted trees, with an extraordinary sliver of a cresent moon rising. Although the trees are palms, this Florida October sky is looking a lot like the October sky back home in Pennsylvania!

Another reminder of my PA homeland is "The Skoolhouse" (at left) which serves as the centerpiece for one of the six Scare Zones at this year's Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights, which officially opened last Friday night. The Skool serves as an entrance to the Central Park section of park, where the trees are hung with 400 flickering jack-o-lanterns! It is spectacular! And if you come, be sure to linger under the canopy of grins for a few minutes and wait to see what happens when you hear a ghostly whispering voice say "Bloody Mary" three times...!
Between the 6 Scare Zones, 8 beautifully detailed haunted house mazes and the roving bands of chainsaw maniacs and zombies, this year is truly amazing fun! I've been to the event twice already since opening, and I'll be taking my family next week.
I still have one more week in the Universal HHN Art and Design department. It has been a terrific design season and the last 5 months went by too fast! 

Another great Halloween event in Florida is "Mickey's Not-so-scary Halloween Party" at the Magic Kingdom, and being somewhat of an expert in Halloween event web sites ;), I have to recommend that you take a look at the "Not-so-scary" web site. It is a beautiful, fun journey describing the event in charming rhyme. I love clicking between the sections and flying though the spooky scenes!
And look, there's the Liberty Square haunted mansion!